Railway-rail joint.



E. F. CAiHE.

RAILWAY RAIL IOINT.

APPLICATION msn 1uLY 10, 19m.

Patented May 1, 19W.

2 SHEET'-SHEET EUGENE F. CAIRE, OF ST. PATRICHS, LOUISIANA..

RAIL'WAY-RAIL JOINT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented May 1l, lltlill Application led July 10, 1916. Serial No. 1U8,427.

To all 107mm 'it may concern.

Be it known that- I, EUGENE F. Cnn-uc, a citizen of the United States, residing at St. Patricks, in the parish of St. James and State of Louisiana, have invented new and useful Improvements in Railway e Rail Joints, of which the following' is a specifcation.

This invention relates to a railway rail joint, and one of the principal objects ot the invention is to so construct the meeting ends of two rails as to permit of an interengagement between the same whereby the rails may be connected without the employment ot lish plates, bolts or analogous devices.

lil/*ith the above and other objects in view the improvement resides in the construction; combination and arrangement of parts set forth in the following specification and falling within the scope of the appended claim.

ln the drawings:

Figure 'l is a to plan view of two rails connected in accor ance with the present invention,

Fig. 2 is a central longitudinal sectional view approximately on the line 2--2 otV Fig. 1,

Fig. 8 is a longitudinal sectional view approximately on the line 3-3 of Fig. l,

Fig. 4 is a transverse sectional view proximately on the line 4 1 of Fig. 1,

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of one of rail ends, and

Fig. 6 is a similar view ot the co-acting rail end.

Before entering into 'a detail description of my' improvement, I desire to state that I am acquainted with the fact that rail joints have been produced wherein one ot the rails is provided with a central extension .which may terminate in an enlargement or head and that the other rail is provided with a groove or recess to receive the said extension and head and while my improvement necessarily embodies these features the arrangement of the same is such that a wedging effect is provided between thev walls of the slot in one of the rails and the extension of the other rail which is disposed in the said slot whereby when, the rails are assembled danger of a vertical movement of the same will be prevented and also whereby the wedging elite-ct of the interengaging elements is such as to positively prevent one of the rails sinking below the other-rail and as a th e of said extension being inclined toward the end thereof and terminating 1n a rounded head 4. The sides ot' the extension converge to the lower edge thereof and the head is conical from its top to its bottom end. Thus 'the head is ot asulostantial trustdconical forni and the lower wall ot the said head, indicated by the numeral 5, is arallel with the upper wall thereof or in ot `er words is horizontally straight while the extension 3 from its juncture with its head to that of its connection with the rail end is beveled or in clined downwardly, as indicated by the chan acter 6.

The thickened end of the rail Q- is provided with a longitudinally extending groove 7 which has its walls beveled or inclined inwardly -`from the head of said rail toward the base ot the rail. The groove terminates in a rounded recess S and this recess :is shaped to snugly receive the trustdconical head of the extension of the rail l. rlhe lower wall provided by the recess 8 is horizontally straight, while the lower wall of the groove 7 inclines from the said lower wall of the depression outwardly toward the base'ot` the rail so that the inclined lower edge 6 of the extension 3 will snugly engage with the referred to lower wall irovidcd by tl'iegroove 7 and likewise where y the lower wall 5 ol3 the head l the said rail l will lie firmly seated upon the horizontally straight lower wall of the depression 8. It is, of course, to be understood that the connecting elements of the rails are spaced to provide for a limited longitudinal-movement of the rails incident to the expansion and contraction thereof, but from the above description, ltaken in connection with the drawings, it will be noted that no securing elements, such as bolts and nuts, fish plates, rail chairs or analogous elements are required for connecting the ends of the rails.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim is:

L rail joint comprising two rails each having their webs, at their ends, thickened, one or the rails havlng lts end tornied with an extenswn whlch terminates in a rounded head, the'side walls of the extension converging from their upper edges to their lower edges and likewise the head of said extension being beveled to provide a substantially frusto-Conieal member, t'ie lower wall of the head being parallel with the upper wall thereof, the lower wall of the extension inclined downwardly at its juncture with the head to its connection with the end of the rail, and the other rail having a longitudinal L'roore which terminates in a rounded reces!! and the walls provided hy the groove and recess heing shaped to correspond with the outer .surfaces oli' the extension 'o'l" thehead thereoll whereby the said extension when received in the groove and recess will he wedged against the walls of the said recess and also whereby the tread Surfaces ot' hoth of the rails will he thus maintained in alinenient.

1n testimony whereof I allx nly signature.

EUGENE F. CAIRE. 

